Dr. Howard Mertz practices all aspects of gastroenterology, including endoscopic ultrasound and inflammatory bowel disease. Nashville Magazine’s survey of local physicians rated Dr. Mertz in the top 85 physicians and top 3 gastroenterologists in Nashville in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017. US News and World Reports rates Dr Mertz in the top 1% of Gastroenterologists in the Unites States (2012). He is the most experienced endoscopic ultrasonographer in Tennessee with a caseload over 14,000 and over 5,000 fine needle biopsies.

He is currently a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt. Dr. Mertz is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. He received his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University with honors in 1982. He earned his doctor of medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston Texas, with honors in 1986. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University in 1989. Dr. Mertz completed his gastroenterology fellowship at UCLA in 1991 and was a member of the UCLA faculty as an assistant professor until 1994. He served as an assistant professor at Vanderbilt, and as an associate professor of medicine and radiology at Vanderbilt University. He has published 36 original articles, 10 book chapters, and 7 review articles including Therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003. Dr. Mertz has served on the editorial boards of Gastroenterology, Gut, and Digestive Diseases and Sciences. Dr. Mertz has been a partner in Nashville Gastrointestinal Specialists since 2003. Dr. Mertz is a past president of the Tennessee Society for Gastroenterology and Endoscopy (TnSGE). The best measure of colonoscopy quality is detection of precancerous polyps, with target detection rates of 15% in women and 25% in men. Dr. Mertz detected polyps in 32% of his female patients and in 43% of the men in 2009-2010 far better than national target rates. In 2017 his adenoma detection rate is 37%.